Shane Mage
"Thunderbolt steers all things."
Herakleitos of Ephesos, fr. 64
>The Hindu
>
>Tuesday, Sep 02, 2003
>
>France's heat wave
>
>By Vaiju Naravane
>
>How is it possible that in a country that boasts of one of the most advanced
>healthcare systems in the world, over 10,000 people are allowed to die in a
>matter of days?
>
>HUNDREDS OF bodies are lying unclaimed in morgues across France, especially
>in Paris. The dead are all victims of the recent heat wave that killed over
>11,000 people. They lie there more than a fortnight after they died because
>their relatives are unwilling to interrupt their holidays in order to give
>granny, father, mother or aunt a decent burial. Unless claimed and buried by
>their relatives, these bodies will end up in a common grave with the state
>paying for their disposal.
>
>During a two-week heat wave from end July to mid-August, people died like
>flies. Most were old, weak and vulnerable. Many of them passed away in
>understaffed retirement homes where they had been dumped by families either
>incapable or unwilling to look after them. Hundreds died on stretcher
>trolleys in hospital corridors, quietly expiring before emergency staff
>could reach their side.
>
>All that most of them needed was an intravenous drip of glucose and saline
>combined with a lowering of body temperature. With the mercury topping 40
>degrees Celsius for several days in a row, buildings constructed to keep the
>heat in and the cold out became furnaces. A fan or an air conditioner could
>not be had for love or money. Hospitals were unable to cope with the influx
>of ailing people. The result was an unprecedented human and social tragedy.
>But these bald facts do not adequately explain France's failure to provide
>succour on time. In India too we suffer extreme temperatures and hundreds
>die each year of the heat. Forty-five degrees Celsius in Uttar Pradesh,
>Bihar, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh and many parts of Rajasthan is not unusual. And
>yet for a population of over a billion, even making allowances for
>under-reporting and poor statistics, the toll even during the hottest of
>summers is rarely, if ever, that high.
>
>How is it possible that in a country that boasts of one of the most advanced
>and comprehensive healthcare systems in the world, over 10,000 people are
>allowed to die in a matter of days?
>
>Reduced legal working hours have given the French the type of leisure others
>can only dream of. The entire country shuts down, especially in August when
>driving in Paris is like going through a ghost town. After July's annual
>clearance sales the economy partially shuts down. Business is placed on hold
>as the French head out to holiday centres for fun and sun, sea and sand.
>With schools and universities shutting down until the "rentrée" or return to
>class in September, cities empty out, becoming shells of their former
>selves.
>
>When the heat wave struck most families were on holiday. Many of their
>elderly relatives had been left behind in old age homes. There were not
>enough policemen or firemen, ambulance drivers, retirement home attendants,
>nurses or doctors to respond to the emergency as more and more elderly began
>falling ill as a result of the heat. Ozone pollution in the cities reached
>dangerous proportions. Many of those who died had a body temperature of over
>42 degrees.
>
>For the past 50 years Europe has seen a demographic decline. France is
>having to reform its pension system because the pension base — made up of
>the nation's active population that contributes to the funds that pay out
>monies — is getting narrower each year, with a corresponding expansion at
>the receiving end of the scale.
>
>And that gap is widening. A lot more people are retiring than are youngsters
>joining the job market. And thanks to modern medicine, those who retire live
>very long indeed — the average life span for a French woman is 87 years
>while a man is expected to live up to 85. Retirement begins at 63. For the
>next 25 years, the working generations of today will have to pay not only
>for their own retirement but also for those who have already retired. One of
>the solutions is to extend the age of retirement so that people have longer
>working lives.
>
>But there are other reasons of a social and psychological nature. The
>nuclear family is exploding. Parents often tell children to leave the family
>home once they have reached 18 years of age when the parents' legal
>responsibility for their offspring comes to an end. When the parents grow
>old the children pay them back in the same currency.
>
>I know of a woman who refused to claim her grandmother's body. "Let her rot.
>She was selfish, mean and cruel. She showed me no love, no warmth, no
>generosity. Why should I be expected to do something now she is dead?" The
>Prime Minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, chided his compatriots for showing a
>lack of solidarity towards the elderly. However, the President, Jacques
>Chirac, did not bother to cut short his vacation to return to hot and stuffy
>Paris as a mark of solidarity to his sweltering countrymen.
>
>In a society obsessed by youth, beauty, success and power, ravaged by
>consumerism and greed, those who have become old, undesirable, weak or
>vulnerable are ruthlessly marginalised.
>
>In a belated gesture, the French are planning a special fund for the elderly
>by cancelling a national holiday. The move has been challenged by people
>reluctant to give up any benefits. In the meantime the bodies are piling up.
>
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